News

Please join BSAC in congratulating Alexander Alvara of the Pister group on being awarded the 2021 Space Science Lab's Lin Fellowship.

Many insects and spiders get their uncanny ability to scurry up walls and walk upside down on ceilings with the help of specialized sticky footpads that allow them to adhere to surfaces in places where no human would dare to go.

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have used the principle behind these some of these footpads, called electrostatic adhesion, to create an insect-scale robot that can swerve and pivot with the agility of a cheetah, giving it the ability to traverse complex terrain and quickly avoid unexpected obstacles.

Please welcome Professor Alp Sipahigil to BSAC's distinguished board of faculty co-directors. 

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created a tiny wireless implant that can provide real-time measurements of tissue oxygen levels deep underneath the skin. The device, which is smaller than the average ladybug and powered by ultrasound waves, could help doctors monitor the health of transplanted organs or tissue and provide an early warning of potential transplant failure.

BSAC is in the process of rolling out a new website. If you need help finding anything on the new site, send us an email at: bsac@berkeley.edu.

To get started, here are a few helpful links:

BSAC would like to thank all of the researchers who presented their research during BSAC's Fall 2020 Research Review, September 21-23.

BSAC Industrial Members voted for their favorite oral presentations and the results are in. Please join us in congratulating the winners of the Fall 2020 Best of BSAC honors, Mallika Bariya and Daniel Teal!

Research Review Posters & Oral Presentations*

Richard White, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and an eminent researcher who made seminal contributions in the field of micro-electromechanical systems, died Friday, Aug. 14, due to complications from injuries related to a fall. White was 90 when he died at his Berkeley home, surrounded by family.

While rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere cause great concern worldwide, most of us pay little attention to risks posed by CO2 changes indoors.

CO2 concentration in fresh air is about 400 parts per million (ppm). But get a group of people packed in a closed indoor space, and CO2 concentration can rise quickly. Recent studies suggest that as levels increase above 1,000 ppm, decision-making and other cognitive abilities decline.

Tuesday, April 28, 2020*

Today’s augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies simulate a vivid interactive experience by altering what users see and hear. But what if users could also feel their way through an experience?

Professor Michel Maharbiz is working with medical device makers to allow hospital staff to remotely monitor and adjust patients' ventilators.

Health officials have advised the public to practice physical distancing and remain at least six feet apart from other people.

But when treating patients stricken with COVID-19, healthcare workers don’t have that luxury. For one thing, they must keep entering each patient’s room to make sure the ventilator is working properly and make any necessary adjustments.

In today's world of wearables, we have begun to receive information about our bodies in real time, and with relative ease. What if we could take this a step further to not only track our health rate or burnt calories, but to understand organ function? Extreme Miniaturization Engineer Michel Maharbiz is actively working to make this a reality. As a co-inventor of "neural dust," Michel uses an ultrasonic interface of millimeter-scale implants to get a closer look at organs in real time.

Prof. Roger T. Howe

Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

February 2, 2020 | 12:00 to 01:00 | 490 Cory Hall

Host: Prof. Clark T.-C. Nguyen

BSAC Co-Director Kris Pister  has been named the new faculty director of the UC Berkeley Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory (NanoLab) at CITRIS. The appointment, which became effective Jan. 1, brings in a veteran user known for his advances in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to head the cutting-edge facility.

BSAC Co-Director Ming Wu wins the 2020 IEE EDS Robert Bosch MEMS Award for his pioneering contributions in MEMS optical switches and optoelectronic tweezers.

The award was established in 2014 "to recognize and honor advances in the invention, design, and/or fabrication of micro- or nano- electromechanical systems and/or devices" with the proviso that individual contributions "be innovative and useful for practical applications."  

Alper Ozgurluk

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley 

December 3, 2019 | 2:00 to 3:00 | 490 Cory Hall

Host: Prof. Clark T.-C. Nguyen

Dissertation Presentation